MAJESTIC І THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
IN MEMORIAM: DR. ROBERT REYMOND THE FACULTY AND STAFF at Knox Theological Seminary would like to extend our prayers and condolences to the Reymond family for their loss. Dr. Robert Reymond was a founding professor at Knox Theological Seminary and served here faithfully as the Professor of Systematic Theology until 2008. Dr. Reymond has written a great number of books, notably Contending for the Faith: Lines in the Sand That Strengthen the Church, The God-Centered Preacher: Developing a Pulpit Ministry Approved by God, and A New Systematic Theology of The Christian Faith. Dr. Sam Lamerson writes of his professor and colleague: “I learned only a few days ago that my dear friend, professor, and mentor Dr. Robert Reymond had gone to be with the Lord. I have known Dr. Reymond since my first semester as a student here at Knox in which he took a young and foolish kid under his wing and tried to train him to be a good pastor/scholar. I will never forget the wonderful times sitting in his classes and listening to him expound the Scripture. “Dr. Reymond was one of three founding faculty members who came to Fort Lauderdale to help Dr. Kennedy start Knox Seminary and served as the professor of systematic theology. He was incredibly kind to those few of us who wandered in the doors in that first year. I will never forget him, but more importantly I will never forget the vision of the Lord that he passed on to me. “In speaking of Matthew 1:23 (For they shall call His name Immanuel, which means God is with us) Dr. Reymond said this: ‘I could understand “God is against us;” I could understand “God is angry with us;” but “God is with us?” That I will never be able to understand.’ “It is that great picture of Christ that was faithfully passed from the founders to the faculty, and which we now seek to impart to students in the classroom today. “Thank you our Father, for that ‘great cloud of witnesses’ who have gone before us.” Samuel Lamerson Professor of New Testament
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Transfigured for
Thanksgivi HOLIDAYS DO NOT NORMALLY conjure psalmist identifies thankfulness as the up thoughts of holiness. We can enjoy flip side of trust. “I trust in the steadfast rest at appointed times and, as citizens love of God forever and ever. I will thank of this or another country, mark our you forever, because you have done it” national pastimes. We savor the chance (Ps. 52:8-9). to exchange gifts or to eat, drink, and be merry. Many of us treat opening-day THANKSGIVING AND PERSERVERENCE games as a matter of liturgical celebration, Second, we need to persevere in but, if we are honest, these holidays are thanksgiving in the midst of our daily not exactly made to honor and shape the forgetfulness. In commenting on Christian life. Thanksgiving Day is a blissful Psalm 52, John Calvin said: “There is exception. no religious duty in which it does As we celebrate this appointed time not become us to manifest a spirit of the year, we are reminded of the deep of perseverance; but we need to be and abiding call of our Lord to be thankful especially enjoined to it in the duty of in all things. Aware that it is easy to skate thanksgiving.” We are prone to forget, past the substance of this feast day, I want “disposed as we are so speedily to to reflect briefly on forget our mercies.” “God must change our three aspects of the The psalmist and call to thankfulness. hearts and minds so that the prophets of Israel call us instead to we see and remember THANKSGIVING remembrance. We His goodness.” AND WORSHIP are summoned to First, the value of thanks. For centuries thanksgiving lies in magnifying God and Christians and Jews have marked meal acknowledging our dependence on him. times as a regular time for such thanks, Thanksgiving puts God in His place and cognizant that without stage prompts keeps us in ours. Thanksgiving is a marker we tend to forget to express gratitude. of radical dependence and a sign of Often meals go too fast: not only is food continued receptivity. More specifically, consumed with unhealthy haste, but it not only defines us as recipients but it provisions are not marked as manna names the Holy Trinity as our provider. poured down from the heavens. We “Every good gift and every perfect gift are summoned to repent and believe is from above, coming down from the and, in this case, that takes the form of Father of lights” (Jas. 1:17). praying for daily bread and marking its Thanksgiving marks the embrace arrival with heartfelt thanks. of our place as a son or daughter and our delight that this one—the one who CULTIVATING THANKSGIVING raised Jesus from the dead and the one Third, we should participate in practices who continues to astonish us with His which cultivate thanksgiving. If Calvin’s beneficence—is our Father. Indeed, the observations about the forgetfulness of